This disclosure relates to extraction of substances from botanical specimens, and more particularly to high-cannabinoid full spectrum (HCFSE) extractions from cannabis.
In the cannabis industry, extracts of cannabis plants are desirable to allow uses other than direct use of the plant material. A commonly used method of extraction is hydrocarbon extraction, using propane or butane (or possibly pentane or hexane) to remove cannabinoids and terpenes from the plant material. This method of extraction can be cheaper to operate than other methods, but the process must be done in a carefully prepared environment to avoid explosion and injury.
Other extractors use supercritical CO2 methods, which avoid the danger of explosion, but have much higher equipment costs.
Both hydrocarbon and supercritical and subcritical CO2 extraction result in an output material that can include both desired and undesired compounds from the cannabis (such as residual hydrocarbon, wax, etc.), requiring post processing, to remove the hydrocarbons or to remove wax and other components that remain.